One Last Tea
by catspaw439
Summary: After The Name of The Doctor, the doctor decides to go see the Brigadier days before his death. After The name of the doctor for the doctor and before power of three for Kate Stewart. Sorry for any grammatical errors, it is 3 am. Also, sorry if the doctor comes off a bit like the first doctor at times.


**One Last Tea**

**A/N I Don't own anything you recognize. This is my first attempt at a doctor who fic. I was just reading some about the doctor and the brigadier because for some reason I have been thinking about the brigadier lately. He is one of my all time favorite characters. So, I decided to write this at one am when I should really be asleep. Oops. Enjoy!**

The door slammed shut as Clara left the Tardis. She was back home safely after dealing with the Dr. Simeon and the whispermen. She was tired and as per the doctor's insistence, she was back home to rest before another adventure.

The doctor was pensive as he turned back towards his Tardis's console. He had been that way since leaving Trenzalore. Looking into his own time stream really got him thinking about his past and his future.

He knew that he was not the same man that he had been when he had left Gallifrey all of those centuries ago. He was a different man. In some ways he was so much better and worse in others.

On one hand he had become a better man. He had learned so much, and was so much more tolerant of some things than he used to be. So many many people lived because of what he had done.

On the other hand, he had become so much darker. With the things he had done in the past, was it such a stretch to believe that he would one day become the man who betrayed himself and everything he had once stood for. He wasn't so sure anymore.

He was jaded. How could he not be. He had lived so very long. And to think due to his recklessness he was still considered kind of young for a timelord even considering what regeneration he was on. How could the other timelords have stood to live for so long. Especially since all they did was sit around and watch, which he could never do. No. Even with how his life had turned out, it was better this way.

As he stood there pondering his past and his future, he came to a decision. Remembering River and the good bye that he had finally said to her, gave him an idea. He was never good at goodbyes. He had never liked them one bit, still didn't, but he found that there was one person that he really should say goodbye to, even if said person did not realize that it was a final farewell. He had to go correct one wrong in his life, especially if he were to someday become the man he had met.

He set the coordinates and asked the Tardis to please for once send him to where and when he was asking to go. With a familiar grinding sound, he stopped. He glanced to his reading, and let out a cheer. He was where and when he wanted to go. He kissed the Tardis's console and all but rushed out the door, right into a nurse who had just opened the linen closet that the Tardis had landed in.

"Excuse me." said the doctor. "Can you point me to Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart's room please?'"

"Go down this hall, turn right, and his is right at the end." she said after a moment, still stunned by the Tardis's appearance.

"Thank You." said the doctor turning rapidly toward the direction in which the nurse had pointed.

He arrived rapidly outside the indicated room. There on the bed was a man who was quite clearly his old friend, if only an older and slightly more frail version of him. Even slightly more wrinkled he was still clearly the man he had once fought alongside.

"Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart." said the doctor.

"Excuse me, but do I know you?" asked the brigadier puzzled.

" I should hope so, after all we've been through together what with yetis and that robot and that crazy sorceress Morgaine."

"Doctor?" said the Brigadier a moment later with a look of utter surprise and happiness on his face.

"Hello old friend." said the doctor.

"By Jove I say it has been years since we last met my friend. I always thought that I would see you again though. Doris and I were always ready to receive you should you turn up. You would have liked Doris I think." The Brigadier said a bit wistfully.

A moment passed before he said, "Anyway. How have you been? How's Ace?"

And so they spent the next few hours catching up. The Doctor told the Brigadier all about his life since they had last met. He told how he had left Ace to go fight a war. He told little of the war itself. The Brigadier seemed to understand his reluctance and so let it go. He told stories of Rose and the bad wolf, of Martha and Donna. When he explained about the master the Brigadier got quite mad calling him all sorts of names. The doctor smiled at that.

He told of visiting Sarah and Joe and how he missed his presence. "Ah yes, I was in Peru. I had a marvelous time too though I was quite disappointed to hear that I had missed you, when I heard after I had returned. " Brigadier said after that tale.

The doctor told about Amy and Rory and their daughter, his wife, River. "Nothing like a good women in your life." commented the Brigadier.

He then told of Clara and his most recent adventures. "You seem to locate all the people who are just as crazy as you are doctor." said the Brigadier.

The Brigadier then told the doctor stories of his wife Doris, who had passed a year previously, and their life together. Much of what he said were simple everyday things though the doctor didn't mind. He was glad to hear that the he had led a happy and good life. "We had a wonderful daughter together doctor, speak of the devil and she shall appear." he said as a familiar women walked into the room.

"Doctor this is..." "Kate Stewart. Scientific adviser to UNIT and your daughter." finished the doctor for the Brigadier. "Charmed to see you again Ms. Stewart, though you haven't met me of course. I am the doctor."

At that declaration she looked towards her father. "Yes, my dear. The same man I told you all those stories about." said the Brigadier.

"A pleasure to meet you, although if I might inquire? What do you mean by again Doctor?" Kate asked.

"Sorry. I mean that for me this is our second meeting though it is our first. As to that, I would be most appreciative if the next time you met me to pretend that we had never met. Time is a strange thing my dear, and I for one would rather my memories as I remember them to stay the same as they are."

"Best to just go with what he is saying, dear." said the Brigadier.

"Oh course, dad. You know him better than I do., after all" said Kate.

The rest of the day passed pleasantly with lots of tea and jammy dodgers. Before the doctor knew it, visiting hours were over, and the nurses were trying to shoo he and Kate away.

"Goodbye dear doctor." said the Brigadier with a handshake just as firm as the doctor remembered it.

"Bye dear friend." said the doctor, trying to hide tears that were threatening to fall. The Brigadier just looked at him weirdly before he was distracted by his daughter saying her own farewells.

The doctor turned reluctantly to leave before he had gotten far, Kate had caught up to him.

"Doctor, are you all right?" she asked.

"Yes. Fine. Thanks for asking." said the doctor while looking anything but fine.

A minute passed and the doctor was just about to leave again when she said in a whisper, " He doesn't have long to live does he?"

The doctor just looked at her forlornly, which was all the answer that she needed.

"Thank you, Doctor. For saying goodbye. My father told me how much trouble with goodbyes you have so I know it how much it must have cost you. I can see why my father speaks so fondly of you. I will take care of him for however long he has left, don't worry. I look forward to seeing you in the future." Kate Stewart said.

The doctor nodded and shook the proffered hand. They then went their separate ways. She to her duties with UNIT and he towards his Tardis. On the way, he stopped by the nurses station to inform them that he would be calling in a few months to inquire on the Brigadier and asked that when he did that they pretend that he had not been there that day. They conceded to his odd request.

He then returned to his Tardis. As he fired her up, he promised himself something. He promised that no matter what happened, and no matter what he did, that he would never forgot his past companions. They had been as much a part of his life as he had been of theirs. They changed him for the better, the Brigadier as much as any of them. With that in mind he flipped a switch and off he went, to get Clara for another adventure.

**A/N Thanks for reading!**


End file.
